Join Barbara Stephenson, President of the American Foreign Service Association, and Nicholas Burns, one of the country’s best-known commentators on international affairs, at a special WorldBoston event on “The State of the State Department” and its implications for the future of the U.S. national interest.
An active duty member of the American Foreign Service for over 30 years, Barbara Stephenson was elected President of the American Foreign Service Association in 2015. Her second term as AFSA president runs to July 2019. Previously, she served as Dean of the Leadership and Management School at the Foreign Service Institute where she launched and co-chaired the Department-wide Culture of Leadership Initiative. In 2008, she was appointed Ambassador to Panama and later became the first female Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in London.
Ambassador Nicholas Burns is the Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy & International Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is the founder and Faculty Chair of the Future of Diplomacy Project and Faculty Chair of the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship. As a career Foreign Service Officer, he was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2005 to 2008. He was U.S. Ambassador to NATO (2001-2005), Ambassador to Greece (1997-2001) and State Department Spokesman (1995-1997).